Object-Oriented Concepts

The following concepts and terms are used to define a source domain schema. Understanding them will help you understand how SoDA determines what to make available for commands.

Domains are the available sources from which SoDA can extract information. The standard information source domains delivered with SoDA include: Rational ClearQuest, Rational Rose, Rational Rose RealTime, Rational RequisitePro, Rational TestManager, Microsoft Word, and the File System.

Classes are a collection of objects that share a common structure and behavior. Classes are one item found within domains. Other items are relationships and attributes. The File System domain, for example, is made up of these classes: directories, files, directory objects, and file records.

An object is an instance of a class. An object found in the directory class of the File System domain might be C:\WINDOWS.

Relationships are associations between classes within a domain. Relationships may be "N-ary" or "Unary."
N -ary relationships are one-to-many relationships. For example, a directory and the files contained in it have an N-ary relationship: there are many files in one directory. Unary relationships are one-to-one. For example, a file and its parent directory have a Unary relationship: there is only one parent directory for every file.

An attribute is a characteristic of a particular class. Attributes result in either text or graphics. DISPLAY commands are created using attributes. A common attribute, for example, is the name of an object.

A subclass is a special case of a class, one that inherits attributes and relationships from its parent class.